Behind Your Mask
by northern.snow.leopard.kitsune
Summary: What if Fox broke protocol and removed his mask?   And what if Raven was curious enough to find the truth behind his defenses?  little ANBU naru sasu uchihacest itasasu narusasu kyunaru  full summary inside, please READ!
1. Prologue

Prologue

What if the Third Great Shinobi War lasted until two years after the Kyuubi attack?

What if Itachi Uchiha, really did murder his clan in madness, driven to insanity by battle?

What if he left Sasuke Uchiha alive because of previous incest?

What if any orphan or child deemed with potential were raised in the ANBU unit base, to speed-develop high ranking ninja?

And what if Fox and Raven, two respected child soldiers, had been such cases?

And what would happen if one night Fox broke protocol and removed his mask?

And if Raven was curious enough to learn the truth behind his defenses?

Sounds like a bloody good story!

Pairings- Uchihacest Itasasu NaruSasu FEMSASU one-sided Kyunaru

Warnings- INCESt CUTTING RAPE and general VIOLENCe. Not a light-hearted jaunt through fields of flowers then.

A/N; I have read up to Pein's attack on Konoha, so I do know Itachi's sad story… Poor him, at least he was gifted with fitness. This story starts completely out of canon- I mean, 7 and 8 year old ANBUs? Hardly the dobe or teme!- But we do actually get into the swing of things later on…. This story may have Sakura-and-Ino bashing, but Choji is dearly beloved and there shall be no remarks on his royal fatness…

Xx N.S.L.K xX


	2. Rehabilitation Induction Scheme

Behind your Mask

Chapter One- Rehabilitation Induction Scheme

¨On my mark. Go¨

Four ANBU snaked their way through the craggy landscape, scrambling with silent precision. They barely breathed and to the untrained eye seemed little more than shadows. They manoeuvred into position, upon the higher mountain scree. Then, still noiselessly, the Taichou of the ANBU Black Ops divison raised his hand. The other three raised their hands too, and promptly dropped them, remaining tensed and coiled.

The Taichou´s hand dropped and the four figures sprang into neat swan-dives, syncronised and hurtling off the cliffs into the valley below, still soundless.

At 150 feet they began to attack.

The Taichou hand signed rapid orders for a barrage of kunai and shuriken, orders which were promply obeyed. The score or so of Iwa shinobi had no chance to prepare for the attack as they were literally smashed into the ground.

The Taichou drew both their swords and blocked several strikes. They dealt back twice as much as they were given. The Bull was engaged in a kind of wrestling match; knowing the Iwakagure penchant for earth-like grappling techniques, he trained to best their best at their own game. The third and fourth ANBU, Dog and Swan, were working together with chakra strings to form corrosive nets of chakra. So far they´d permanently maimed thirteen of their foe and killed five. The remaining two Iwa-nin were only slightly more tricky, as they kept using last-moment Kawarmi to shift an inch away from blows.

Finally the Taichou´s two blades, Night and Day, swept off one shinobi´s arm neatly, and jarred the other one´s leg so badly it shattered.

¨Take them back to T&I: Inoichi and Anko will deal with them. I think they´ll be pleased, don´t you?¨ smiled their beloved Taichou, to the Iwa-nins´ horror. Inoichi and Anko, together with Ibiki, were torture and interrogation specialists of the highest caliber. Being examined by them for an hour alone could make one lose the will to live- and cause permanent brain damage.

Bull, Dog and Swan bowed, murmuring the customary respectful, ¨Hai Taichou.¨ before departing, sharing their two new burdens. The Taichou waited until he could no longer hear their heartbeats and turned to the two children camoflaged by the rocky environment.

¨Did you see, understand and annotate this manoeuvre?¨

¨Hai Taichou. Raven-san requests the permission to speak?¨ It was an uncommon if not odd relationship between the three present, with Raven having to ask to speak directly to Taichou due to Hierarchy. But Fox usually spoke well enough for the pair of them.

¨Permission granted Fox-san Raven-san.¨

¨Arigato Taichou. What purpose does the whole unit signing ´halt´ serve? And what percentage is the certainity you will not be spotted and engaged whilst in aerial flight?¨ While Fox´s voice could be reasoned a boy, Raven was undoubtedly the possessor of a musical girl´s voice, and Taichou mused on her identity for a moment before answering.

¨The signing is merely to check the whole unit is alert and ready. The likelihood we will be engaged before we are ready to make the first move is under 20%, unless the enemy contains a sensory type, in which case the likelihood shoots up to 40%. Either way the tactic is more likely to succeed than not, and even if the enemy chance to look up, we will be ready for them.¨ Raven accepted this quietly.

¨Hokage-sama requests the presence of Fox and Raven, so make haste, fledgling Black Ops.¨ The Taichou pulled back his skintight hood to reveal a Hummingbird mask as his voice turned slightly manical. The two fledgling Black Ops ANBU mirrored his gesture, exposing, as foretold, a Fox and Raven mask. They bowed in gratitude, before melting into the dusk. Hummingbird followed, grinning insanely behind the mask.

For Genin to make their way to the border of Iwakagure it can take up to a week and a half if the way is trouble-free. The fledgling ANBU Black Ops, previously just ANBU, did it in two hours, mostly just using Kawarmi to traverse longer distances. They re-entered Konohakagure by nightfall, nodding to Rabbit and Cat-sama who were on the gates duty, and bounded over the rooftops dead straight for the Hokage Tower.

The Hokage was indeed expecting them. The Sandaime always left his window open for when he was awaiting high ranked shinobi in the past, and it was flung wide open now. They dived skillfully through the gap and waited emotionlessly as he turned from his chair, Hokage robes donned, lit pipe in one relaxed hand.

¨Ah... Fox-san, Raven-san. Thank you for coming. Please, take a seat.¨ They did as ordered.¨Now there is no easy way to say this... As of the end of the Third Great Shinobi War two years ago, we needed to boost our forces. Tensions were still high with Iwa- still are- and enlisting anyone brave enough to ask was the right thing to do. We had a lot of people die in the Kyuubi attack and it very nearly cost us the war, so what we had left we needed to train hard. However, we have now come to the point where we have an unnessecary flux in ANBU and Jonin numbers as a result of this vigorous scouring, and I and the Council have ruled that we should disperse those able, to be rehabilitated. I ask you now, we would have you two be reintroduced to your rightful age group and give you the chance to live your life without the pressures of ANBU. However, for security reasons, you will be required to limit your considerable abilities intensely, give falsified information and contain your appearance in a Henge until safe to reveal otherwise. We offer the option to rejoin ANBU if you cannot cope with this life. Please. I beg you, as an old man who has seen it all, to give it a chance while you still can.¨ Fox and Raven looked at each other, then knelt.

¨For the Hokage, we do our duty.¨ They chorused. Sarutobi frowned. They were too ANBU-ish to be anything but shinobi, drilled into it from birth and three years (Fox and Raven respectively) so he would have to make them Genin, as much as he disliked it.

¨Tomorrow morning I wish to see you at o-six-hundred hours to fill in your information and Henge identity. Dismissed.¨

Raven turned away, but not before Fox grabbed their hand and teleported them both to god-knows-where.

Raven was surprised, for the first time in a long while. Fox had just teleported her to the top of the Hokage monument and now stood on the Yondaime´s head, thinking.

¨Fox-sempai, I ask what this is f-¨ She couldn´t help but gasp. Clear in the moonlight, she could see Fox. She could see his face. Surrounded by masks as far back as she could remember, it seemed taboo to remove one. But she was entranced.

He had tanned skin cut into sharply by three black whisker lines drawn on each cheek, a perfect nose and a solemn mouth, spiky shoulder-length blonde hair and- his eyes. Oh Kami his eyes. His eyes were the softest deepest blue she could ever dream of. And they were gazing right at HER.

¨You shouldn´t worry for revenge. If you seek to obtain it, it shall never be. The sweetest revenge is to rise higher than you´ve ever dreamed and never fall- to make your enemy sweat in fear and envy of your perfect world.¨ Raven couldn´t process it-or rather wouldn´t- so she reverted to clan traits, grunted behind her STILL On mask and stalked away. She had to admit though, Itachi-nii being got at while she did nothing sounded pretty good to her.

A/N; so? What did you think? Bashing will happen next chapter but it will be an honest review of Sakura and Ino´s fangirlism. Don´t get me wrong- sakura is cool when she turns all medicish and surpasses Tsunade.

Please Review- I can weave suggestions into my main plot :)

xx

N.S.L.K


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